Chapter 4
Kassie
I’m sitting here peacefully reading, and very aware of the fact that Bennett keeps glancing my way. He doesn’t take his eyes off the road for long, but he does keep looking at me, and it’s distracting as hell!
I can't put my book down, and get some sleep, or pretend to anyway, because I know I won't be able to when I know he's watching me.
So, instead, I keep reading the same fucking words over, and over again.
Slowly, over the next hour, he turns the volume up on the radio, and I'm hoping with everything in me that he forgets I'm in the car, and he starts singing along. Unfortunately, all he gives me is humming, and intermittent whistling when he finds the right playlist on Songify.
I wonder if he chose the playlist for me, considering I wouldn’t have thought that this kind of music would have been his thing. Until I heard him humming along, anyway.
“You're not going to sing, are you?” I ask, not looking up from my book, and hoping to push his buttons.
He turns to look at me, and smiles, he doesn’t answer though, instead he looks back to the road ahead.
Twenty minutes later he turns down the music, as he prepares to pull off the highway.
“We’re almost there,” he says.
“I know,” I say without looking up. “It is my family’s cabin, Bennett, I've been here a few times.”
“You don’t say?”
Finally, I look over at him as he pulls off the highway, and directly onto the country road towards Brindlewood, the small town our cabin lies on the edge of.
“You know, sarcasm isn’t a good look on you, McGuire.”
“Everything is a good look on me, Timms,” he returns with a smirk, and a wink.
The man actually winks at me!
I roll my eyes as I turn to look out my window, even though I know he can’t see them, it makes me feel better doing it. I could swear he chuckles, but by the time I look back at him, he's got a straight face, and I'm second guessing whether or not I was hearing things.
The ten minutes it takes to drive through the centre of town, and back out again to the dirt road to our cabin is done in silence.
The second Bennett has the car in park, I've unbuckled my seatbelt, gathered my things, and I'm out of the car, reaching to get my bags out of the back of his car.
“Hey, let me.”
I try to argue, but he's by my side, hauling my bags, and his out before can even open my mouth.
“I know you're stubborn, and can do things for yourself, just let me help you this once. I won't tell anyone if you don’t, promise.” His smile is disarmingly kind, and it throws me off long enough for him to take my non answer as an answer. “Can you grab the keys out of my pocket, that way I don’t have to put anything down before we get inside.”
I look up, and realise that we’ve walked to the front door, and Bennett is standing in front of me, but slightly to the left, with his hip jutting out so that I can put my hand in his pocket!
“I'm sorry, you want me to grope around in your pocket for the key?” I ask, feeling my eyebrows fly up into my hairline in surprise.
“Nobody said anything about groping, Kassie, but if that’s something you feel like doing while you're in there, I don’t think I’d fight you.” Once again, he flashes his cocky, lopsided grin at me. It’s one I've seen thrown around at leisure to more women than I care to admit counting.
“I'm not groping around in your pocket,” I say with a snort of disgust, as I start digging around in my handbag, and raise my hand triumphantly when I find what I'm looking for. “Luckily, I have a set of my own!”
“Yeah, definitely lucky,” he mumbles, making me pause for a second before I slide the key into the lock, and open the door.
Ignoring him, I push open the door, and allow him to walk in first. At least, I attempt to, but we end up in some kind of weird stand-off.
“You're the one who loaded himself up with all the bags, go inside so that you can unload.”
“My Mum would be ashamed if I didn't allow you to go inside first.” He nods towards the doorway, indicating that I should go in first. “Not to mention, my Dad would smack me on the back of the head for not being a gentleman.”
I snort, because I can't imagine Bennett being a gentleman in any way, but I can imagine both his Mum chastising him, and his Dad clocking him on the head.
“Fine,” I say, marching into the cabin, standing to the side so that he can manoeuvre his way through the doorway, then shutting the door behind him.
I have no idea whether he has more stuff to get out of his car, but it can wait for now, because I need to get the heater on.
“Fuck me, it’s freezing in here!” I say, louder than I mean to. In fact, I didn't mean to say it out loud at all.
Without waiting for a reply, I walk over to the thermostat, and switch on the heater. I put the temperature up higher than any of my family would want it, but for now, I just want the damned house to warm the hell up!
When I turn around, Bennett has disappeared, along with all of the bags, so I make my way towards the bedrooms to find him.
He's been here more than enough times with my family to know who usually stays in which bedrooms, and I find him in the room that I call mine.
“I assumed you'd be staying in here again?” he asks, and I nod, because seeing him standing in the middle of my private space with luggage dropped at his feet, makes my brain stutter. “I’ll take the room across the hallway, if that’s OK?
The main bedroom is obviously your parents, and I don’t want to take Max’s room, because I’ll just have to move out of it when he gets here.
But, also, I don’t want to be too far away, just in case. ”
There are more guest rooms on the other side of the living area. Our parents purchased this place years ago with the hope that we could all grow into it with partners, and families of our own. At this stage, it’s still about sharing the space with our friends, rather than husbands, or wives.
“OK.” My reply is simple, because apparently my brain has stopped working.
He nods, lifts a duffle bag up, swinging it over his shoulder, then leaves my room, closing the door softly behind him.
“Geezus fucking crisps on a cracker, Kassie! What in the fuck was all of that? He’s been a nice guy by giving you a lift up here.
He was just being a nice guy when he carried all the bags, and then let you in the house first. And he was being nice by bringing your bag to your room.
There is nothing else to it, you idiot!” I admonish myself.
“Bennett is your brother’s best friend. He’s annoying as hell, and even though you register that he’s also sexy as hell, you know for a fact that you can't go there. Ever. Not that he sees you as anything other than his best friend’s big sister anyway. ”
I'm still muttering to myself as I throw my bags onto the neatly made bed, and open them up so that I can start to put away the things that I brought with me.
My toiletries are sitting on the top of the bag I open, so that’s where I start. When I get into my ensuite bathroom, I start putting everything in its place. That is until I look up, and see myself in the mirror!
I know I had a shower before we left, but sitting in the car next to Bennett has apparently done a number on my body, because I decide to have another one.
I strip down to my underwear, and that’s when I realise that I have no towels in here. They’re all in the drawer that my Mum stores them in, in each room still.
That’s when two things happen;
I walk back into my room half naked, and Bennett knocks, but doesn’t wait for an invitation to enter before making himself at home.
“What the fuck, Bennett!” I scream.
“Ohh, fuck!” He grumbles, freezing to the spot.